Monday, 22 July 2013

Experiences First - 1

Before embarking on softer aspects of life, i would narrate some experiences first and the learning from them.

I am privileged to have served a Public Sector Undertaking for most part of my life. I enjoyed working for the PSU since i was in the service of the nation and not any nincompoop entrepreneur serving his own selfish ends. I was also privileged to have some friends who worked with me for entire period and were extremely intelligent. One of them a product of premier management school in India, had that inherent knack of also being a great motivator.
He could make Aurangzeb sing to his tune.

But that does not mean I should
start with a vote of thanks to this friend. I am otherwise also a very poor public speaker when it comes to
proposing a vote of thanks. This friend of mine had personal experience of a vote of thanks
speech he asked me to deliver at one long service award function. It ended in
two sentences. Thanking the awardees, their spouses and the Directors, I
mentioned all others were performing their normal duties and need not be
thanked.

I have selective memory syndrome.
This has nothing to do with my age. I have always been like that. I either
remember most enjoyable moments or such instances which I should have forgotten
and gone forward. The later set I remember for the learning they provided.

Whatever be my state, I have
memories of few instances. For maintaining dignity of all those who came in my
professional life while at that PSU, I shall not name any, making sure I am not
judgmental, nor personal. I shall share first these instances and then help you
agree with me in describing Culture which defined the PSU.

Cross functional movement: I am an
engineer not by design, but an engineer all the same. At least I was recruited
by the PSU as one. What I am going to narrate here is a set of facts
coupled with an arm chair analysis of what happened. And therefore any
error in conclusion is mine and without meaning any offence to all my
elders. Late 70s at the end of commissioning of integrated first set of
plants, possibly, it came to light that number of engineers in some
discipline was a bit too much for operation. And since second burst of
expansion was a bit too far, these engineers had to be gain fully utilized
while providing them general managerial exposure. Seniors in Engineering
were concerned more about the pace of growth (!) this group would have
experienced in relative terms. The same Seniors were otherwise considered
as tough characters. And we had experience of such performance demand.
Many of us were terrified to be in close proximity of some of these seniors.
Tough without and soft within. They were “Coconuts” personified.

Some of us,
including yours most sincerely, were tipped and even elevated and transferred to
non-engineering functions. It was then taken as norm that in such promotion and
transfer cases, individuals need not bother about transfer part and continue to
enjoy the comfort and care of parent discipline. This was a common phenomenon.
The Seniors demonstrated these qualities consistently and uniformly across
teams. CEO then, was absolutely clear in terms of his decision and insisted
that transfers also should be given effect. My seniors got closeted with me and
at length explained why such cross functional transfer will benefit me. They
however stopped short of telling that “you are otherwise no-good as an engineer”.
I, on the hind sight, feel they were correct, and I benefited tremendously by that
cross functional movement. I have remained indebted to these seniors of mine
eternally. This move helped me look at jobs in a rounded way and objectively,
and made a better manager of me.